Page 2 of The Other Omega

Nora groaned. “Don’t.”

Ivy leaned around me. “I haven’t even said anything.”

“But you are about to.”

I smiled. “What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” Nora said, answering much too quickly.

“Jamie asked her out.”

Nora made a strangled noise. “Ivy!”

I stopped walking again. “Jamie Jamie? The Jamie you’ve fancied since he moved next door…” I pretended to think. “About ten years ago?”

“I do not fancy him.”

Ivy and I looked at her, and Nora lasted about three seconds before giving in. “Fine! Maybe a little.”

“A little,” Ivy repeated. “She used to know which days he had football training.”

“That was because we got on the same bus.” Nora tried to tug her arm free while I was distracted, but I hooked my elbow more firmly around hers and pulled her back against my side.

“No, you don’t get to escape now. What did you say?”

Ivy started laughing, and Nora covered half her face with one hand. “I panicked.”

“What did you say?”

“You said,” Ivy began when Nora didn’t answer, putting on a painfully polite voice, “‘That’s really sweet, Jamie. You’re such a good friend.’ Then you patted his arm.”

I stared at Nora. “You patted him?”

“I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You’ve fancied this boy for years, and when he finally asks you out, you friend-zone him so aggressively that you have to physically reassure him afterwards.”

“I know!”

I squeezed her arm, laughing. “It’s all right! When he asks again, say yes before your brain has time to overthink.”

Nora looked at me. “That’s your advice?”

“Yes.”

“That’s rubbish advice.”

“It is solid advice,” Ivy said.

“Neither of you is ever allowed to give me relationship advice again.”

“I don’t think you have a choice,” I said.

Nora muttered something rude under her breath, but she was smiling. We kept walking, leaving the village lights behind us as the road grew darker. The fields on either side were almost impossible to see now, their edges marked by hedges and bits of fencing. A late-summer chill hung in the air, the kind that always arrived the minute the sun went down after a warm day. It raised goosebumps along my bare skin, though it still wasn’t cold enough to need a coat.

A dull ache settled behind my eyes, and I rubbed one temple.

“El?” Ivy said.